Innovative Projects Realized

Simulations magnetothermiques en regime transitoire des limiteurs de courant supraconducteurs a base de rubans a couches minces

Comme les limiteurs de courant de court-circuit supraconducteurs sont appeh~s a jouer un

role ch~ dans Ie futur des reseaux d’energie electrique. Cependant, leur design requiert des

outils de simulation numerique sophistiques, qui ne sont pas accessibles presentement. Ce

stage MtTACS, couple a un projet de recherche MITACS de plus grande envergure, vise a

mettre en place les methodologies de simulation numerique suffisante pour arriver a

optimiser la conception de limiteurs de courant de court-circuit supraconducleurs, et ainsi

fournir a Hydro-Quebec des outils d’analyse d’approfondissement des connaissances des

supraconducleurs destines pour les applications en reseau electrique. Les moch~les

numeriques permettront de traiter a la fois les parties electromagnetiques et thermiques des

probh!mes de rubans supraconducleurs en couches minces

Characterizing the Mode of Action of Novel Boron-Containing Antifungal Agents for Crop Protection

Fungal pathogens of agriculturally significant crops pose a serious threat against global food security. This is exacerbated by the limited classes of fungicides that are commercially available for the farmers and the rapid emergence of resistance against the existing fungicides. Furthermore, resistance against agricultural fungicides can poses serious threat to human health as it can provide cross-resistance to the antifungal drugs that are used in the clinics world-wide. The objective of this project is to discover novel boron-containing fungicides and identify their mechanism of action through chemical genomic analysis. This project will address the urgent need to discover novel fungicides against plant fungal pathogens and identify new approaches to treating fungal infections.

Méthodes de diagnostic et d’estimation de durée de vie pour des transformateurs de puissance avec des techniques d’intelligence artificielle

L’objet de cette recherche est d’améliorer la sûreté de fonctionnement des transformateurs de puissance en développant des méthodes de surveillance, de modélisation, de diagnostic et d’estimation de durée de vie. L’analyse par réponse en fréquence doit faire l’objet d’une étude approfondie puisqu’elle peut conduire à l’identification d’un modèle électromagnétique fiable du transformateur. L’utilisation de ce modèle va ensuite faciliter le suivi de signatures caractéristiques en donnant des formes d’ondes de référence. Un autre objectif de cette recherche doit mener au développement de nouveaux modèles d’estimation de durée de vie et de défaillance pour les transformateurs en faisant appel à des systèmes experts et des méthodes d’intelligence artificielle. Ces modèles pourront s’appuyer sur l’analyse de l’historique de nombreux transformateurs en utilisant la banque de données du groupe DMI- Energy et des simulations de défauts sur des équipements de laboratoire. L’entreprise partenaire va profiter d’une avancée technologique significative dans ses méthodes de diagnostic grâce à l’apport de l’intelligence artificielle.

Development and Optimization of Immune-Evasive Capsules for Cell-based Therapies

Cell-based treatments for chronic metabolic disorders such as diabetes are poised to disrupt conventional treatments based on insulin administration through needles. These treatments involve transplanting cells that can provide the needed hormone or enzyme directly into the patients’ circulation, in principle for years and without human intervention.
However, these transplanted cells need to be protected from immune recognition by the patients’ immune system. This project describes the optimization and testing of capsules that can provide physical immune isolation to such therapeutic transplanted cells, replacing the current requirement for chemical immune suppression.
These capsules can help bring Canadian and global cell-based therapies to the clinic, and potentially offers significant improvements to the quality of life for Canadian, and global, patients.

Investigations on amino acids for optimal gut health and productivity in broiler chickens raised without antimicrobial growth promoters

The largest cost of raising chickens is feed, therefore maintaining chickens in an environment that supports proper nutrition is essential for productivity and profitability. However, nutrient absorption and gut adaptation to luminal inflammatory stress is challenging production efficiency as a consequence of the restriction on the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) and anti-coccidial drugs. The metabolic changes induced by inflammation are homeostatic in nature and thus nutrients that would have been utilized for growth and skeletal muscle accretion are diverted to support host defense systems. The available scientific information on aspects of amino acids nutrition and gut health is fragmented. The proposed research will use meta-analysis approach to establish a bibliographic database on interactions among amino acids and other nutrients on metabolic and immune responses in broiler chickens and identify gaps in knowledge that require further experimentation.

Attribute-Driven Automatic Generation of Realistic Face Textures

When creating a video game, every digital character must be created by professional artists. Their work is very labor intensive because the number of created characters are in the thousands, each of which has multiple visual components that must be created for each one. “Scanning” real actors to create a digital version of themselves can help speed up this process, but each scan must be altered to preserve the actor’s anonymity. Given all of the face data Ubisoft has from past projects, we plan to create a system that can generate faces of completely new digital characters automatically with just a few desirable attributes and with high quality and believable results. The faces generated should be good enough to use on player characters and minor characters with little to no modification by artists. This will give them more time to work on major characters in the game.

All-Mach 3D Aerodynamic Design System (HALO3D) for Next-Generation Hypersonic High-Altitude Low-Orbit Commercial Aircraft

The future of aviation is (much) faster travel with (significantly) lower environmental impact (pollution, noise, etc.). In another couple of decades, hypersonic flight (5-10 times the speed of today’s aircraft) will be a serious contender. Tom Clancy prophesized having breakfast in Washington and be back in time for lunch after conducting business in Europe: that is how fast hypersonic flight could be. As the Internet has completely changed our lives, hypersonic flight will be a similar game changer. The research program groups the talents of a leading university (McGill) with a giant of aerospace (Lockheed Martin) and the no. 1 simulation software company (ANSYS) in developing a simulation system for studying and optimizing the aerodynamic and chemistry effects of a civil airplane, from subsonic take-off speeds (today’s aircraft), to acceleration to supersonic speeds (such as the Concorde), entry into low-orbit at hypersonic speeds (space shuttle), and landing as an aircraft.

Optical Coherence Tomography Imaging of Conjunctival Lymphatic Vessels

The proposed project will focus on using new Optical Coherence Tomography techniques for non-invasive imaging of the anterior segment of the eye. In particular, our effort will be focused on using OCT methods to reliably image the lymphatics vessel network of the conjunctiva, which plays a major role in the progression and surgical intervention of glaucoma but has thus far been difficult to image non-invasively. Reliable OCT imaging of the conjunctiva lymphatics network will be a significant breakthrough in the treatment of glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness globally. The partner organization and its collaborators are uniquely predisposed to facilitate this work in a meaningful fashion, given their extensive knowledge in developing new and effective glaucoma treatment technologies.

Automated HX-MS technology for protein functional analysis

Proteins are important molecules. They are the workhorses of your cells and increasingly, they are being developed as new drugs (biopharmaceuticals). Proteins are large and complex and determining their properties is difficult. Our best tools for this are very impractical to use in a high throughput setting, where 100’s of samples need analyzing. In this project, we are improving the ruggedness and throughput of one of these exemplary tools (HX-MS), and developing focused software to support it. Our partner (Trajan Scientific and Medical Inc.) will gain access to advanced HX-MS systems and concepts that can help them improve their product offering in this space.

Remote Life Signs and Self-Harming Behaviors Monitoring System

Suicide is one of the most important causes of deaths in the prison environment, both in Canada and internationally. Rates of attempts of suicide and self-harm have been on the rise in recent years. To address this problem, there is a real and immediate need for an automated, private, and effective monitoring system that can detect attempts of suicide and self-harm in real-time. This project aims to develop a first phase of a monitoring system by assessing vital signs as well as body configurations through sensors and state-of-the-art artificial intelligence algorithms to detect behavioral patterns that can be classified into gestures of interest. Set parameters are defined for triggering alarms when the conditions are met in order to assist the personnel responsible for the health and safety of the inmates. The system is also designed to respect the inmates’ privacy and confidential information.

Croissance du mélèze hybride assujetti à différentes méthodes de préparations de terrain

Le secteur industriel forestier traverse une période difficile due à plusieurs causes, dont le

manque appréhendé de bois. Divers organismes gouvernementaux et non gouvernementaux

ont trouvé dans la sylviculture intensive et le zonage forestier (TRIADE) une façon de faire

face à ce problème. À son tour, la sylviculture intensive doit résoudre certains inconvénients

comme l’établissement des plantations. Une fois l’arbre planté, il doit s’adapter aux conditions

environnementales du terrain (disponibilité de l’eau, de la lumière, des nutriments, etc.). Très

peu de choses sont connues au Québec en matière de sylviculture intensive et

d’établissement de plantations intensives, notamment à l’aide de mélèzes exotiques. Cette

étude cherche à connaître les traitements de préparation de terrain idéaux et les

caractéristiques environnementales les plus favorables, des microsites de plantation pour le

mélèze hybride. Cette recherche sera un important outil pour Abitibi-Bowater en Haute-

Mauricie, le MNRF et l’industrie forestière du Québec dans son ensemble qui se dirige vers…

Breaking Biofilms with Ordinary Polymers – Light-Activated Antimicrobial Crosslinkers

Microbial growth on surfaces, or biofouling, is a pervasive problem across sectors including medical implants, hospital surfaces, water treatment, and environmental monitoring. Many existing solutions involve the use of harsh chemicals that may harm human health or the environment. In this work, our team of chemists, biologists, and engineers will develop a plastic that includes light-activated molecules that prevent microbes from growing, but do so in a way that is site-specific and inherently safe. Our partners, Epic Ventures, Inc. have introduced many other new materials to the market, and will work with us to translate our new polymers into useful coatings for medical devices, hospital environments, drinking water systems, and high performance materials.